Hike #14: Penzance to Lamorna Cove
We take a train to Penzance which is the closest station to Marazion, our home base for week one of the 2015 trip. Marazion is only a five-minute bus from Penzance but we decide to hit the trail before even going to our cottage as it’s early enough to finish before dark and we’re eager.
Penzance has a few places where for a small fee you can drop your luggage, which is what
we do after switching our shoes and packing raincoats in our backpacks because just look at
those clouds. I swear the weather in Penzance is always one of three things: just rained, raining,
or going to rain. It's the only place we've been where some form of wet stuff is usually a given.
we do after switching our shoes and packing raincoats in our backpacks because just look at
those clouds. I swear the weather in Penzance is always one of three things: just rained, raining,
or going to rain. It's the only place we've been where some form of wet stuff is usually a given.
The first part is super easy walking.
We pass through Newyln, a major fishing port with one of the largest fishing fleets in the UK.
And that's about it for Newyln.
And that's about it for Newyln.
Mousehole, just down the road, is not at all pronounced the way it looks like it should be. It's "Mowzel".
It's important to know these things in advance so you don't embarrass yourself among the natives. We
had planned on visiting this little hamlet during our 2012 trip to Cornwall but ran plumb out of time.
Easy to happen in England.
Dylan Thomas called Mousehole “the loveliest village in England.”* Dylan, in case you forgot or never
knew, is considered Wales' greatest poet. He wrote deep stuff that I am usually too tired to understand
because reading deep poetry makes my head hurt. But still. If a famous poet calls a place “the loveliest
village in England,” I’m apt to mosey on over and give the place a looksee.
Some history stuff: Mousehole developed around the fishing trade, appearing in record books as a major
fishing port way back in 1266, which is an amazingly long time for a record book to exist. Supposedly,
the last fluent native speaker of the Cornish language lived in Mousehole. Some accounts say Dolly Pentreath
was the last person who spoke only Cornish, while others say she learned English at the age of twenty. Whatever.
It’s still cool. According to the travel guides, as you walk towards the harbor from the car park you will
pass the house where she lived. It’s marked by a plaque. I mention this because my plan was to take a photo
of said plaque and include it in a future post, at which time you could say, “Oh, I remember Chris mentioning
that house and that lady. Wow. She was right. There is a plaque.” But I totally forgot about the house and
we walked right by it without even noticing which just proves you need to write stuff down so you don't
forget and miss things like the house of the last fluent native speaker of the Cornish language.
Mousehole is a maze of narrow, winding streets filled with small shops, galleries and restaurants. The cottages
were built from finely grained granite, and if the Spaniards hadn’t sacked the place in 1595, they would be
some old cottages indeed. Alas. The Spaniards did attack, burning the entire village down to wispy ashes
—missing only one lowly house, which still stands today. Which we also forgot to look for. Sigh.
*Don't ever call Cornwall England, because although today it's part of the UK, it's not and never has been England, and in
Cornwall that matters. A lot. Nobody told Dylan Thomas though, and he blissfully stuck to his "prettiest village in England"
proclamation until the last bitter end. (I have no idea whether his end was bitter or not.)
It's important to know these things in advance so you don't embarrass yourself among the natives. We
had planned on visiting this little hamlet during our 2012 trip to Cornwall but ran plumb out of time.
Easy to happen in England.
Dylan Thomas called Mousehole “the loveliest village in England.”* Dylan, in case you forgot or never
knew, is considered Wales' greatest poet. He wrote deep stuff that I am usually too tired to understand
because reading deep poetry makes my head hurt. But still. If a famous poet calls a place “the loveliest
village in England,” I’m apt to mosey on over and give the place a looksee.
Some history stuff: Mousehole developed around the fishing trade, appearing in record books as a major
fishing port way back in 1266, which is an amazingly long time for a record book to exist. Supposedly,
the last fluent native speaker of the Cornish language lived in Mousehole. Some accounts say Dolly Pentreath
was the last person who spoke only Cornish, while others say she learned English at the age of twenty. Whatever.
It’s still cool. According to the travel guides, as you walk towards the harbor from the car park you will
pass the house where she lived. It’s marked by a plaque. I mention this because my plan was to take a photo
of said plaque and include it in a future post, at which time you could say, “Oh, I remember Chris mentioning
that house and that lady. Wow. She was right. There is a plaque.” But I totally forgot about the house and
we walked right by it without even noticing which just proves you need to write stuff down so you don't
forget and miss things like the house of the last fluent native speaker of the Cornish language.
Mousehole is a maze of narrow, winding streets filled with small shops, galleries and restaurants. The cottages
were built from finely grained granite, and if the Spaniards hadn’t sacked the place in 1595, they would be
some old cottages indeed. Alas. The Spaniards did attack, burning the entire village down to wispy ashes
—missing only one lowly house, which still stands today. Which we also forgot to look for. Sigh.
*Don't ever call Cornwall England, because although today it's part of the UK, it's not and never has been England, and in
Cornwall that matters. A lot. Nobody told Dylan Thomas though, and he blissfully stuck to his "prettiest village in England"
proclamation until the last bitter end. (I have no idea whether his end was bitter or not.)
